In case you missed it, here is the trailer for Maleficent:
What do we learn from this trailer?
1. Maleficent lives in a world where Middle Earth meets fairy tales – including an army of Ents.
You won’t like trees when they’re angry.
This will also probably set up a man vs. anthropomorphized nature paradigm.
2. King Stephen, instead of being a worried father and cartoonish fellow, will be a warrior with a dark side, and will do something that makes Maleficent really, really angry.
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Perhaps, Stefan turns evil because he too decided not to destroy the One Ring.
Isildur deciding not to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mt. Doom. (Fellowship of the Ring)
3. There appears a warm connection between Aurora and Maleficent from Aurora’s childhood, something that turns to fear later.
4. Maleficent had wings, but somehow lost them – and apparently Stefan was part of the problem.
5. Angelina Jolie looks super cool as Maleficent, and does an excellent job both physically and vocally taking on the intimidating and impressive performance from the original cartoon.
6. And there’s a dragon!
The main question remains: Will it be good?
Based on the trailer, there is a firm chance. Hopefully, the filmmakers have learned from Alice In Wonderland and Snow White and the Huntsman. Both films had good moments, and great potential, but got lost in all the shininess and CG imagery. Instead of telling a story, they ran through a few tropes, a few non-sensical plot shifts, and came to a rather messy, confusing, and generic end.
I am hoping this will be a good movie, because it is a modernized fairy tale with a female lead over 30. Whether villain or not, that alone is something to celebrate.
- What do you think?
- Are you excited, ‘cautiously optimistic’, or concerned?
- What movie are you most excited about coming out this summer?
- If you could hang out with a single Disney villain for a day, who would you choose and why? (This excludes other franchises under Disney’s umbrella – Marvel, Star Wars, etc.)
Other Thoughts On The Trailer:
- Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent from Geoff Coupe’s Blog
- Maleficent Full Length Trailer from Time Split Twins
- You Know The Tale Now Find Out The Truth – Maleficent from China Bambi
- Maleficent International Trailer Is All The Fantasy Feels from The Daily Geekette
- Trailer Wednesday: Maleficent from Love Pirate Blog
- And a note from the composer whose music was used in one of the trailers.
The L. Palmer Chronicles 
Honestly, I’m iffy on the idea. Maleficent is one of those villains that I loved for being evil and mean. It feels ‘off’ that she’s going to be humanized to the point of misunderstood outsider.
I’m excited for more fantasy to be on screen, but I agree that it’s dangerous to humanize the villain too much. Some villains are better in the mystery. They simply are evil. It is black and white. I hope the movie doesn’t try too hard to make her likable.
Me too. I saw the latest trailer over the weekend and was worried that she would be made into a tragic hero or something. I can only get a babysitter so many times a year, so this movie might stay in the rental category unless I hear amazing things about it.
As I know you’ve read my article (thank you for commenting by the way), you know I agree with Yallowitz here. If Disney is going for the Maleficent fanbase, they’ve clearly misunderstood what makes Maleficent so great. I have a bad feeling it will be Tinkerbell all over again: you take away exactly what the public likes so much from the character. But as you suggested, they offer back a story, which might attract other audiences who might not have been too fond of Maleficent as a character.
I think Maleficent is the Disney Princess Movie equivalent to Boba Fett from Star Wars – a villain who is interesting and cool for their mystery and super-awesome character design, but may become uninteresting if given too much back story.
I do think the movie would be neat to see! Thanks for telling me more about it 🙂
More ents on the big screen should be fun.
I just saw the trailer for this yesterday. Angelina Jolie looks like she was made for the role (though they gave her some weird enhanced cheekbones that her already beautifully sculpted features don’t need). I think I’ll check it out when it’s released.
I thought it was weird she has prosthetic cheekbones too, although Ian McKellan has to wear a prosthetic nose as Gandalf – because otherwise his nose gets lost in his fake beard. That sentence was funnier than I meant it.
🙂
I always liked Maleficent, too. Not so impressed with Jolie. I’m thinking of her in Beowulf, and how the writers ridiculously over-wrote Jolie’s character to get more of her on screen (yes, a terrible pun) instead of trusting their story to keep reader interest. As Laura said, too much CGI as well.
But, it’s Maleficent. I’ll have to see what else comes out at the same time.
Great analysis, made me chuckle 😀
I am looking forward to it though, it looks awesome!
I hope it’s as awesome as it looks.
If they just invited her to the damn party, all this nonsense could’ve been avoided.
The trailer looks good, but I have yet to see a live action fairy tale that didn’t take itself too seriously.
1. The tale of Sleeping Beauty is really a tale of manners. Though, it appears Maleficent isn’t a very nice guest.
2. Have you seen Mirror, Mirror? It’s a live-action version of Snow White that is quite silly in the best of ways.
I haven’t seen Mirror Mirror — but I will!
I’m really looking forward to this. I remember reading about the casting last year and thought, “Hmm, this makes sense.” And it does! She’s the perfect wickedness Disney could ever offer!